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Monday, March 2, 2009

Teff Banana Pancakes

I am about to divulge another secret recipe. A sweet, nutritious little breakfast treat. Naturally gluten-free of course! Even those of you not following a gluten-free diet will enjoy these cakes. They are also egg-free making them perfect for older babies and toddlers. Our 14 month old twins began eating these a few months ago and love them. In fact, if we have leftovers, I will pack them in a to-go container and take them for them to snack on during our outings.

I like to eat them topped with a dollop of raw almond butter and a tall glass of fresh green smoothie on the side. In fact, this is my perfect pre-workout meal. Clean burning fuel that doesn't weigh you down. Energizing and refreshing.

Here are some important Pancake Making Tips:

Follow the recipe. We tested this a number of ways and found this recipe works perfectly. If you add just a tad bit more liquid you will find your pancakes will stick mercilessly to your pan.

Be sure to whisk together the dry ingredients well before adding your liquid ingredients.

It works best if your milk or water is not cold but rather slightly warm (not hot).

Heat your skillet to the correct temperature for about 3 to 5 minutes before adding anyting to it, not too hot but warm enough to cook them without sticking (I cook mine a notch or two below medium).

Add a teaspoon or so of oil in between pancakes.

Most egg-free batters are thicker than pancakes made with eggs so you will need to help your batter spread immediately after pouring it into the hot skillet. Use the back of a spoon or the measuring cup you used to pour your batter into the pan.

For those of you who can not tolerate bananas (I know it is may sound strange but yes, a banana allergy can be rather common) you can substitute equal amounts of applesauce for the mashed banana.

Ok, so now the recipe. Tom is doing the dishes now and talking and talking to me while I am trying to write. He just got back from an Autism conference in Vancouver yesterday and has lots of new information to talk about. Really fascinating new research on this subject. Tom also attended the DAN (Defeat Autism Now) conference in San Diego a few months ago and learned a great deal there as well. He will write about the benefits of the GF/CF diet in children with Autism in the coming weeks. But first look forward to yet another teff recipe this week. A scrumptious Yeasted Teff Sandwich Bread -- coming soon! If you are interested in more wholesome, gluten-free teff recipes you can check out our Teff Breakfast Muffins or Chocolate Chip Banana Teff Bread.

Teff Banana Pancakes

Teff, a very small Ethiopian grain, is now cultivated in Idaho. It is rich in minerals, particularly iron. When ground into flour, these minerals become more available. These pancakes will give you staying power until lunchtime, especially if combined with a green smoothie. For more banana punch, try chopping up a small banana and fold it into the batter. Also, now that my twins are eating these (and they can eat a lot) I need to make a double batch.

About the Author

Alissa Segersten holds a Bachelor's of Science in Nutrition from Bastyr University. She is the founder of Whole Life Nutrition, the mother of five children, a whole foods cooking instructor, professional recipe developer, and cookbook author. She is passionate about helping others find a diet that will truly nourish them, and offers elimination diet recipes, healthy gluten-free recipes, paleo and vegan recipes, as well as tips for feeding your family a nourishing, whole foods diet. Alissa is the author of two very popular gluten-free, whole foods cookbooks and guidebooks: The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook and Nourishing Meals. She is also the co-author of The Elimination Diet book. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!

45 comments:

I have been looking forward to this recipe since you mentioned it in one of your previous comments. Breakfast for dinner tonight sounds nice doesn't it? I've got some ripe bananas that need to be dealt with anyways. I think my hubby will enjoy these! Thanks!

Another recipe that looks and sounds awesome. The picture is so neat. I like how you got your green smoothie in the post and the pic. ;-) I know your family loves to start their day with your fantastic meals! Ordering teff is definitely on my list. (I am in a rural area so nobody carries it around here.)

BTW, hope your version of potato soup came out wonderfully. So great for cold weather. Our snow will be gone by the end of the week when the temps go way up!

oh! i am so excited abt this pancake recipe!.. gonna try it this coming weekend!.. i have the teff grain.. and the teff flour which has never been opened.. this will be my first recipe with it! thank you thank you!

Shirley - Yes, we love breakfast here, especially pancakes and green smoothies! I hope you get a chance to try them out. And yes I did make potato soup the other night and it is all gone now. I will have to make it again so I can take a photo and then post the recipe on this blog.

Laura - I bet you will love these pancakes - it is a very easy way to use teff flour if you are new to it.

MountainMomma - I am so happy for the feedback and that your whole family loved them, thanks!

Alison- Oh good, I am sure your kids will love them. FYI - my girls turned their noses up the first 2 times I made them but now love them!

I made these Banana Teff Pancakes and just added an extra tablespoon of coconut oil and left out the tablespoon of maple, etc. They were still pretty sweet and very yummy. I toasted leftovers and they were equally if not more delicious with the slightly crispy outside. No syrup or butter necessary… That’s a great recipe. In fact I’m going to make them now for an afternoon “teatime” snack.

I got an up-turned nose from Dahlia about these and it's odd since she really likes teff in all forms it seems. We'll try again. I am hoping that she'll take a liking to them soon since I loved them :-). They turned out beautifully though!

I just made these wonderful pancakes. They are so good. I was impressed. I used the applesauce alternative in place of the bananas and I used water for the liquid. As I was eating them, I thought, "Hey, these would be good with chopped pecans mixed into the batter!" I'll try that next time. These will be a favorite for sure!! Thanks so much!, Julie

Thank you soo much for mentioning the applesauce instead of bananas!! I'm intolerant to bananas and many many recipes for smoothies, pancakes, puddings, etc use them. I'm gonna try it right away! Thanks again - I found your blog through Nourishing Gourmet and I'm enjoying reading it! Christina

I made these pancakes this morning but didn't have any flax seeds and so added 1 large egg without changing any of the other amounts.....they were fabulous!I've been missing whole grain pancakes since I went off of wheat and these are the perfect replacement. I can see this recipe will become a regular in our house. -Lara

I LOVED these! I substituted applesauce for the banana, and sprinkled some blueberries on top of each pancake, but I can't wait to try it with the banana next time. My dad (who eats gluten and all kinds of processed junk) couldn't stop eating them and is now thinking of buying teff flour. Thanks for a fabulous recipe!

I am one of those banana haters...so the tip about applesauce is a good one. In two weeks I go to Esalen in Big Sur to assist Leslie(queen of teff) Cerier in a GF/Veg class for 5 days (yeah!) I think I might even try fresh pumpkin!

I am so glad I found your blog! I made these pancakes this morning for my family and they were quickly eaten up. I see I need to make a 2x batch next time! We are vegan, gluten-free, and avoid soy products. Your blog and recipes exactly fit our needs. I love that you use teff in so many recipes and very little sugar.Thank you, thank you for all of the work you put in and all of the recipes (which I plan to begin making)!!!!

I have to preface my comment by stating that I am the only GF member of our household, and I generally DON'T like pancakes. However, my husband loves to make them and he and my daughter devour them. They ran out of mix yesterday morning (the one thing in our kitchen that is NOT GF), so I offered to make this recipe since I had all of the ingredients on-hand. Imagine his surprise when I was ranting and raving (along with my 7yo daughter) about how great these were! I even requested that he make them for my birthday breakfast this morning. We did make a double batch this morning - so we have a few leftovers for yummy (and healthy) snacks.

I like the idea of making an even larger batch (3x) and freezing the leftovers (to heat up for breakfast on those "rush" mornings). Ali - do you think these would hold up to that?

Thanks again for making me a pancake lover! (My husband thanks you too)!

I've been wanting to try making gluten free pancakes for a while now and finally had the perfect opportunity this weekend. These were absolutely incredible....my boyfriend was practically drooling over them. Thanks for the great recipe!!

I have made these several times and really enjoyed them, but I made them this morning with 1/2 pumpkin purree and 1/2 apple butter in place of the banana. Then I added some cinnamon, ground cloves and nutmeg. They were so tasty!

These are incredible. I'm so grateful to have a pancake recipe that doesn't require 4 different kinds of flour. I'm sensitive to sweeteners of any kind, so I skipped the tbs. of agave/maple syrup, and used a cup of unsweetened vanilla flavored hempmilk. Delicious.

An addendum to my previous comment: I've made this recipe now with teff, buckwheat, and sorghum flours, and each batch has come out just as delicious as the previous one. Thank you for coming up with such a versatile and tasty recipe!

Do we need a teflon pan for this? We use stainless steel pans and pancakes stick terribly. I even went so far as to buy a tiny teflon pan and see if I could make better pancakes with it. I certainly did but it took 1 hour to make 8 pancakes!

Megan - I use a 10-inch stainless steel skillet with a heavy bottom. The key is to heat the skillet for a while before adding any oil or batter. I never use non-stick. Hope this helps! Let me know how they turn out. :)

I just made your Teff Pancakes, although I couldn't help myself from making a few substitutions because of the ingredients I had on hand, etc! I used white rice flour instead of tapioca flour, a small egg instead of flax (decreased the water to 1 cup), decreased the coconut oil to 1 T, left out the honey and threw in a Truvia packet, left out the salt as I try to eat low sodium if possible, and added 2 T of mini-chocolate chips. They ROCKED! My kids LOVED them, and so did I! I count calories, and they ended up being about 2 calories per gram. (Using a 1/3 cup scoop that made each pancake about 160-170 calories.) Thank you so much for the recipe. Can't wait to try your teff bread next!

I made these for my daughter yesterday and she gobbled them right up. I don't know if her body liked them however. She's been having some digestive issues since. Hopefully that's just because it's new. Fingers crossed because we all love pancakes and I feel sad when she can't enjoy too.

Wow. You certainly did perfect this recipe. I'm not a huge pancake-maker, if fact, this may have been the first time I made pancakes, but after browsing for recipes with which to use teff flour, I came across these pancakes. Lounging at home on a foggy, cold, San Franciscan morning, I just whipped them up and they are perfect. Thank you! I'm going to check out your blog now as I enjoy them with a smile on my face :)

Thank you so much for this recipe. I have so many food allergies and these turned out so well, it's great to have a recipe for pancakes I can actually eat! I made pancakes out of half and cooked a few in the waffle maker and they turned out great as well. They remind me of gingerbread - maybe next time I'll add cinnamon and ginger and molasses and go with it! Thanks!

I noticed you use tapioca flour in most of your baking. What does it do and if I omit it what will happen? I am new to GF and when I was buying my pantry list at the health food store they were out of tapioca flour! Is there a replacement for this flour?

Would canned pumpkin work in place of the banana in these? My daughter is a huge fan of pumpkin and I'm thinking she might really like these with pumpkin in them. I may try the banana version for myself. I'm unable to eat wheat/gluten, egg, soy, yeast, etc., so this recipe is a lovely breakfast possibility for me! Thank you!

I made these this morning and they were awesome! I used applesauce instead of the banana, added a dash of cinnamon, and used half a cup of canned coconut milk and half a cup of water and they turned out great. Thanks for the recipe!

Just wanted to share in case anyone else is in the same boat. I recently discovered that my 2 year old doesn't tolerate coconut, so I made these with grapeseed oil instead. It worked great. These are hands-down the best GF pancakes I have made. Actually, the best pancakes period, with or without gluten.

Do you soak the teff flour over night in all of your teff recipes? I ask because I don't want to ruin the recipe and I also read that teff is low in phytic acid. Perhaps soaking this flour is not necessary?

These pancakes are amazing!!! Fluffy and perfect consistency. I warmed some coconut oil on a skillet then added chopped super ripe bananas and maple syrup and poured it over the pancakes. Out of the world good!!!! Thank you for sharing this recipe.

I was recently diagnosed with allergies to soy, wheat, dairy and egg so when my naturopath suggested teff flour, i found these! I made them today and they were AMAZING! i left mine a little gooey in the center and omitted the maple syrup but added chopped banana and cinnamon on top! want to thank you for the wonderful recipe!!!

Hi Ali, I have lost a recipe I got in one of your classes and it is not published in any of your books (I have all of them) nor on this website. I love it and am desperate for it! It was called something like Lemon Scented Almond Cake or ??? Does that ring a bell? I would love to get the recipe again. I serve it with strawberries on top and am hoping to do so again with strawberries coming soon!

Welcome to my blog!

Hi! My name is Alissa Segersten and I've had a love of healthy food and cooking since the age of 10. When I was pregnant with my first daughter in 2001, I diligently began writing down my recipes because so many people would ask for them! Some of these recipes appeared in my first book, The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook. I now have 5 children and am passionate about educating them about our food system so they can make the most informed choices as they grow up and are exposed to a world of processed, chemical-laden foods. Join me in my mission of helping to support families with nourishing meals!